Ignaz Edler von Born

Ignaz Edler von Born, also known as Ignatius von Born Hungarian: Born Ignác, (Romanian: Ignațiu von Born, Czech: Ignác Born) (26 December 1742 in Alba Iulia,Grand Principality of Transylvania, Habsburg Monarchy – 24 July 1791 in Vienna), was a mineralogist and metallurgist. He was a prominent freemason, being head of Vienna's Illuminati lodge and an influential anti-clerical writer. He was the leading scientist in the Holy Roman Empire during the 1770s in the age of Enlightenment.

His interests include mining, mineralogy, palaeontology, chemistry,metallurgy and malacology.

Born belonged to a noble family of Transylvanian Saxon origin. He started school in his hometown, then was educated in a Jesuit college in Vienna, but left the Jesuits after sixteen months to study law at Prague University. He then travelled extensively in Germany, the Netherlands and France, studying mineralogy, and on his return to Prague in 1770 entered the department of mines and the mint.

In 1776 he was appointed by Maria Theresa to arrange the imperial museum at Vienna (German: K.k. Hof-Naturalienkabinette, the predecessor of today's Naturhistorisches Museum), where he was nominated to the council of mines and the mint, and continued to reside until his death.

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